The threshold of religion / by R.R. Marett.

  • Marett, R. R. (Robert Ranulph), 1866-1943.
Date:
[1914]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The threshold of religion / by R.R. Marett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    these essays, it is because they belong to a movement of anthropological thought which has for some time demanded a more permanent vehicle of expression than is afforded by periodical literature. Further, in view of the fact that to me personally there has been attributed in certain quarters a sweeping and even revolutionary dogmatism about religious origins, I gladly embrace the opportunity of showing, by means of this handful of gleanings and suggestions, what a small, humble and tentative affair my theory—so far as I have a theory—is. A note on a point of fact must be added. The statement about Ngai, on p. 12, derived from Joseph Thomson, appears to be incorrect. Mr Hollis, who is thoroughly at home with the Masai language (whereas Thomson, I believe, was not), informs me that Eng-At is a thoroughly anthropomorphic god, of much the same character as was the sky-god Zeus for the ancient world. Thomson, he thinks, must have misunderstood the Masai. They would never have alluded to his lamp, or to himself, as Eng-At. It is possible, on the other hand, that they said e-ng-Ai, or en-doki e-ng-Ai, “it is of God, it is something supernatural.,, Mr Hollis tells me also that the true form of the name of the volcano which Krapf calls Donyo Engai, and which for years figured on the maps as Donyo Ngai, is Ol-doinyo le-’ng-Ai, the mountain of God. If it were a hill, it would be En-doinyo e-ng-Ai.1 1 See, however, note on p. 12,